Mrs. Robinson

by Pam Ripling

Sorry to be tardy. I was messing with my locker. Sometimes it sticks. Anyway, yeah, I had a really embarrassing thing happen once in school. I was in tenth grade, I think. It was so awful, to me, that I kinda blocked it out.

I was a good kid. I never swore, didn't cheat (much), didn't cut class. I didn't smoke, got average grades, teachers pretty much thought I was okay. I was always respectful. I wasn't that popular, but I had friends.

Mrs. Robinson was my gym teacher. She was sorta new to the school, and younger than all the other P.E. instructors. So I think she tried harder. Tried harder to be tough, and maybe even a little mean. I didn't like teachers who yelled, and this particular teacher was quickly getting a bad reputation among my small group of peers. I joined their ranks in trash talking, although I didn't really feel that great about it.

There was a popular song around then, made even more popular by a movie about a character with the same name. Mrs. Robinson. There is a refrain in the song that goes, "and here's to you, Mrs. Robinson..." One day I thought I'd be cool and while my friends' eyes were on me, I belted out that refrain in the locker room, lifting my middle finger high into the airspace above my head. I didn't have to turn around to know that Mrs. R was standing right behind me. My friends' horrified expressions said it all.

Like I said, I was a good kid.

Pam Ripling is the author of middle-grade mystery, LOCKER SHOCK! Buy it at Quake, Fictionwise or Amazon today! E-book version now available for your Kindle! Visit Pam at www.BeaconStreetBooks.com.